Senators down Jets 5-3

Jets vs. Senators, March 8, 2014

Winnipeg Jets defenceman Zach Bogosian skates in the warmup prior to a game against the Ottawa Senators in NHL action at MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Man., on Sat., March 8, 2014. The Jets wore camouflauge warmup jerseys for Canadian Armed Forces Appreciation 2014. The jerseys will be auctioned off in support of charity. Kevin King/Winnipeg Sun/QMI Agency

Kevin King/Winnipeg Sun/QMI Agency

Winnipeg Jets goaltender Al Montoya skates prior to a game against the Ottawa Senators in NHL action at MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Man., on Sat., March 8, 2014. The Jets wore camouflauge warmup jerseys for Canadian Armed Forces Appreciation 2014. The jerseys will be auctioned off in support of charity. Kevin King/Winnipeg Sun/QMI Agency

Kevin King/Winnipeg Sun/QMI Agency

Winnipeg Jets forward Evander Kane skates prior to a game against the Ottawa Senators in NHL action at MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Man., on Sat., March 8, 2014. The Jets wore camouflauge warmup jerseys for Canadian Armed Forces Appreciation 2014. The jerseys will be auctioned off in support of charity. Kevin King/Winnipeg Sun/QMI Agency

Kevin King/Winnipeg Sun/QMI Agency

Winnipeg Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien skates prior to a game against the Ottawa Senators in NHL action at MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Man., on Sat., March 8, 2014. The Jets wore camouflauge warmup jerseys for Canadian Armed Forces Appreciation 2014. The jerseys will be auctioned off in support of charity. Kevin King/Winnipeg Sun/QMI Agency

Ottawa Senators head coach Paul MacLean, a former Winnipeg Jet, argues for a five-minute penalty during second-period NHL action against the Jets at MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Man., on Sat., March 8, 2014. Kevin King/Winnipeg Sun/QMI Agency

Topics

Fans of the Winnipeg Jets are probably sensing they’ve seen this movie before.

Heck, even those tortured Atlanta Thrashers fans are familiar with what’s been happening to this Jets team that has been revitalized under the watch of Paul Maurice, but has managed to win just two of their past seven games while picking up six of a possible 14 points.

No matter how much confidence the Jets banked since the coaching change, Murphy’s Law suggested things were going to level off a bit after the 9-2 start.

However, the burning question left to answer revolves around whether or not this group can find a way to pull together to write a new ending before it’s too late?

A 5-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon brought the Jets’ losing skid to three games (0-2-1) during a time of the season when collecting points is of the utmost importance to stay in the race.

What can the Jets do to try and get things back on track?

“Try and forget about it. We have to put these games behind us,” said Jets centre Bryan Little, who scored his 20th goal of the season of the campaign. “The last few games haven’t been fun, but we’ve got to find a way. There’s not many games left. We’ve got to find a way to get back in the win column and get that confidence back.”

Confidence has proven to be a sometimes fleeting thing for this group of players.

But to a man, the Jets continue to believe in the foundation they’re trying to build under Maurice and that another winning streak could be just around the corner, provided they do a little better job of execution.

Jets defenceman Mark Stuart scoffed at the suggestion that his team was going through a bit of a lull right now.

“Are you calling it a lull? Because I’m not calling it a lull,” said Stuart. “Of course it isn’t quite the week we wanted, but we’ve got to move on here. We’ve got to continue to push. We’re still confident in here.

“We know we haven’t played quite our best, but we know it’s there.”

With the Senators sitting back a bit after building a 5-2 lead, the Jets got a goal from Dustin Byfuglien and peppered goalie Craig Anderson with 22 shots during the third period.

But for my money, the desperation level arrived a little bit too late.

The Senators are fighting for their playoff lives as well and seemed to be a bit quicker when it came to answering the proverbial bell.

“It wasn’t the outcome we expected or wanted, but if we can look back at the third period and play with that kind of desperation and keep things simple, if we continue to do that, that’s the type of hockey that wins playoff games,” said Jets winger Eric Tangradi. “That’s the type of hockey that’s going to get us in.”

The Jets managed to score twice in seven chances with the man advantage on Saturday (one from Little, another from Toby Enstrom), but a failed five-on-three that lasted more than a minute proved costly and their vaunted penalty-killing units gave up two goals on four chances to the Senators.

Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec was yanked at 9:36 of the second period after Mike Hoffman scored his first NHL goal after a sweet backdoor feed from Jason Spezza.

It was the fifth goal on 20 shots that Pavelec faced, but Maurice saw this as more of a mercy pull and not an indictment on how his starting goalie played.

“I’ve got no problem with him. I didn’t take him out to do anything other than to hopefully calm the bench down,” said Maurice. “He had seen enough.”

For his part, Pavelec was obviously disappointed in the result while looking toward the task of facing the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center on Monday.

“It’s a tough one absolutely. You want to win every game, especially at this time of year. Every point counts,” said Pavelec. “Now we got three home losses, so it’s not good, but tomorrow’s another day.”

Tomorrow is indeed another day, but if the Jets don’t find a way to return to their winning ways in short order, their slim playoff hopes could soon vanish into thin air.